Synopsis: "Archaeology of Idumpan"

Dr. D. Rajaram

The legendary Idumpan-Murugan battle was fought on the southern side of Idumpanmalai. One
can see a vertical clivus and a gradual gradient. One finds large boulders on this gradual slope.
These boulders were used as weapons during the war. Idumpan lifted and hurled these boulders at Murugan.
In one situation one of the larger boulders was too heavy. Idumpan pushed it down from his fort
on the hilltop of Idumpanmalai. Following this many war strategies were adopted by Idumpan
and Murugan.

Today, even after thousands of years this war field maintains all the evidence of the violent war.
A study of some of the combat materials deployed by both Idumpan and Murugan provides us the
tell tale evidence of the war.

Methodology:

Conduct an archaeological survey of battlefield.

Photograph the sites of historical episode.

Analysis of photographs and other recorded data.

Establish dimensions from available data.

Correlate established dimensions anthropometrically.

DNA analysis of blood stains on the boulder.

The data collected was studied and the findings were analysed. Anthropometric ratio that
determine the skeletal height of a normal human was utilised to compare with available measurements of
body parts of Idumpan. We have also estimated the physical height of Idumpan.